About Stony Brook★ Stony Brook University was established in 1957 as a college for the preparation of secondary school teachers of mathematics and science. The first campus was located in Oyster Bay, Long Island, on the grounds of a former Gold Coast estate. In 1962, a new campus was built near the historic village of Stony Brook on land donated by local philanthropist Ward Melville. Part of the State University of New York system, the University has grown tremendously and is now recognized as one of the nation’s important centers of learning and scholarship — carrying out the mandate given by the State Board of Regents in 1960 to become a university that would “stand with the finest in the country.” The University campus lies about 60 miles east of Manhattan and 60 miles west of Montauk Point. It is only a short distance to the Atlantic beaches of the south shore and the vineyards of the East End. More »

Stony Brook University is ranked one of the top 100 universities in the nation and one of the top 40 public universities by U.S. News & World Report and is included on their list of notable programs for undergraduate research/creative projects. Stony Brook is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, the invitation-only organization of the 62 best research universities in North America. There are 68 undergraduate majors and 80 minors and more than 100 master’s programs, 40 doctoral programs and 30 graduate certificate programs. Stony Brook is one of 10 universities given a National Science Foundation recognition award for integrating research and education. The internationally recognized research facilities of Brookhaven National Laboratory and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory are nearby. More Fast Facts »

Tuition★ Stony Brook's tuition makes it one of the most affordable top-ranked schools in the world.

Financial Aid★The Office of Student Financial Aid Services provides information about available federal and state programs that provide grants, loans, and work-study to assist eligible students in pursuing their academic goals and also info about student employment opportunities not based on financial need.

Alumni★ The Stony Brook Alumni Association represents more than 160,000 alumni nationwide and abroad. Established in 1965, the Association works to increase communication, encourage involvement, and expand services for alumni, while we build support for Stony Brook University. For more info, see Alumni & Degrees Granted. Stony Brook graduates rank among the highest in the nation when it comes to earnings potential, according to the PayScale College Salary Report. More »

Schools & Colleges★The College of Arts and Science offers degree programs in fine arts and humanities, in biological and physical sciences, in mathematics and in social and behavioral sciences. In addition to departmental majors, special interdisciplinary majors using the resources of two or more departments are offered, as well as programs leading to provisional certification in secondary education.

★The College of Business provides comprehensive education and research for the business, public, and nonprofit sectors. Our MBA program is taught by senior Stony Brook faculty with decades of experience. They are complemented by key executives recruited as visiting professors from throughout the tri-state region — industry leaders who have built stellar careers in today’s global business world. Also included is an Executive MBA program.

★The College of Engineering and Applied Sciences offers a wide range of programs that provide students with opportunities to find work in industry or proceed to graduate study in a variety of fields. Seven ABET-accredited programs give the student latitude to plan a course of study within traditional engineering disciplines or in new interdisciplinary fields.

★The Graduate School offers advanced degree programs in many fields leading to the master's and doctoral degrees. Stony Brook's advanced graduate programs are internationally recognized and consistently receive exceptionally high ratings from external evaluation agencies and scholarly studies.

★The School of Journalism is the first and only undergraduate school of journalism in New York State’s public university system. Students prepare to succeed in an evolving multimedia future, working out of the school's state-of-the-art newsroom. All students take courses in print, broadcast and online journalism and have the opportunity to participate in internships on Long Island and in New York City.

★ The School of Professional Development provides part-time graduate education for working adults. Its diverse offerings include teacher training, human resource management, and the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies. SPD is also the largest provider of professional education certification for school administrators in New York State.

★ Every first-year student enters Stony Brook as a member of one of six Undergraduate Colleges organized around themes of general interest to students.

★ Stony Brook has been one of only 94 institutions in the country to be designated a "Very High Research University" by the Carnegie Foundation. Our faculty have been responsible for more than 1,900 inventions and 550 U.S. patents. With more than 70 academic departments, Stony Brook is among the top 40 institutions funded by the National Science Foundation, and expenditures on organized research, from external and internal sponsors, are at more than $160 million. Research News »

★ The University co-manages Brookhaven National Laboratory, joining an elite group of universities — including Princeton, Stanford, the University of California, and the University of Chicago — that run federal laboratories.

★ Researchers at our new Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center will develop new technologies to produce clean energy, enhance production from renewable sources and find better ways to distribute and store energy with minimal impact on local ecosystems.

Economic Impact★ Stony Brook University generates more than $4.6 billion annually in regional economic impact, accounting for nearly 4 percent of all economic activity in Nassau and Suffolk counties. Our influence is felt in economic development, education, medical care, nursing home care and research. As Long Island’s largest single-site employer, the University has more than14,000 full-and part-time employees. Indirect employment on Long Island brings the total to nearly 60,000. More »

★The Calverton Business Incubator promotes industries such as agriculture/vitaculture, aquaculture, and environmental technologies that are the lifeblood of Long Island’s East End.

★ Stony Brook is the only public university in the state with two Centers for Advanced Technology — one in sensor systems and one in biotechnology.

★The Small Business Development Center brings together the resources of the University, the private sector and government at all levels to assist entrepreneurs, business and industry in the solution of their problems, leading to increased productivity and profitability.

★Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence (SPIR) has worked with 410 companies, and conducted more than 2,270 projects, creating more than 2,200 internship opportunities for our students. Our industrial partners estimate that this has resulted in approximately 11,808 jobs being created or retained.

Libraries★Frank Melville Jr. Memorial Library, the main library building on the West Campus, houses collections serving the fine arts, humanities, music, social sciences, engineering, biology, and geosciences. Special areas in the Melville Library provide ready access to current periodicals, government documents and legal materials, maps and microforms. Other facilities of note are a Music Library and Audio Center, a variety of individualized study carrels, and a student lounge. The Department of Special Collections houses Senator Jacob K. Javits' collection of public papers and memorabilia — one of the nation’s leading archives of 20th-century congressional papers — the William Butler Yeats Microfilmed Manuscripts Collection, and the University Archives. The branch libraries, including the Chemistry, Marine and Atmospheric Science, Science and Engineering and Mathematics/Physics/Astronomy libraries, are located in departmental buildings. The Health Sciences Library is located on the East Campus.

★The Humanities Institute at Stony Brook focuses on new modes of interdisciplinary research within the humanities and social sciences and builds bridges between the human sciences and the medical, technical and natural sciences, reaching out to the local community through public lectures and film series.

★The Simons Center for Geometry and Physics was started in 2007 by a gift from the James and Marilyn Simons Foundation. The Center's mission is to develop the interaction of geometry in the broadest sense with theoretical physics. The Stony Brook tradition is exemplified by the joint ITP-Math seminars initiated by Jim Simons and Frank Yang in the 1970s; these stimulated interest worldwide in the mathematics of gauge theories.

★ Stony Brook Athletics supports 20 Division I varsity intercollegiate athletic programs that compete at the highest level within the NCAA, and in world-class facilities such as the 8,300-seat Kenneth P.LaValle Stadium and a sports complex housing our new 4,000-seat Stony Brook Arena, opening in Fall 2014.

★ Stony Brook Southampton, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, is home to the Southampton Arts MFA programs and summer workshops, the waterfront research and teaching facilities of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, including the new Marine Sciences Center, and the undergraduate residential Semester by the Sea programs in marine sciences and the arts.

★ Stony Brook Manhattan, at 27th Street and Park Avenue South, is a state-of-the-art facility featuring undergraduate and graduate classes, conference rooms, offices and a reception space for special events.

★ Stony Brook Medicine's Trauma Center ranks in the top 4 percent nationwide, according to the report “Survival Measurement and Reporting Trial for Trauma” by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

★Stony Brook Children's Hospital is building on the foundation of Stony Brook Medicine's excellence, offering the most advanced pediatric specialty care in the region, along with research that gives families access to groundbreaking clinical trials and programs that attract some of the best and brightest doctors.

★ The Heart Institute has the most experienced open-heart surgical program in Suffolk County and offers minimally invasive techniques for bypass surgery and valve replacement.

★ Stony Brook Medicine was the first on Long Island and in New York City to acquire the da Vinci® S HD Surgical System – the most advanced robot-assisted surgical system of its kind — and just one of 43 medical centers nationwide with a robotics system to assist with complex electrophysiology procedures.

Academic Departments & Programs★ Stony Brook has exceptional strength in the sciences, mathematics, humanities, fine arts, social sciences, engineering and health professions, with the University as a whole and many individual programs ranked among the top fifty nationwide (The Gourman Report, 10th ed.). A complete listing of academic departments and programs is available online.

Presidents and Chief Administrative Officers★ July 1, 2009–: Samuel L. Stanley Jr., MD, President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., MD is fifth President of Stony Brook University. He received his MD (1980) from Harvard Medical School. After completing his internship and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, he did postdoctoral work in immunology at Washington University, St. Louis, and was appointed to the faculty in the Division of Infectious Diseases of Washington University Medical School, one of the nation’s most highly ranked Schools of Medicine. In 2003, he was named Director of the Midwest Regional Center for Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research and Vice Chancellor for Research in 2006. Dr. Stanley is a distinguished medical researcher and has published extensively. More »

★ 1994–2009:Shirley Strum Kenny, President Shirley Strum Kenny was the first woman and humanist to serve as President of Stony Brook University. After a distinguished career as a literary scholar, teacher, and academic administrator, she came to Stony Brook as its fourth president in 1994. She strengthened the core academic and research operations of the University, fostered close links with business and industry, and established new working relationships with the Long Island community. Kenny launched and chaired the Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University with funding from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Prior to her tenure at Stony Brook, Kenny was President of Queens College from 1985 to 1994.

★ 1980–1994:John H. Marburger III, PresidentIn 1980, John H. Marburger III became the third president of Stony Brook University, a position he held until 1994 when he became University Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering. Marburger's presidency coincided with the opening of University Medical Center and the development of the biological sciences as a major strength of the university. During the 1980s, federally sponsored scientific research at Stony Brook grew to exceed that of any other public university in the Northeast. In 1998, he became director of Brookhaven National Laboratory and president of Brookhaven Science Associates. He also served President George W. Bush as science advisor and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

★ Sept. 1, 1965–Aug. 31, 1978:John S. Toll, PresidentIn 1965, John S. Toll, a Princeton-trained physicist and former professor and chairman of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Maryland, became the second president of Stony Brook University. By the time he left, the school of 1,800 students had been built to one of 17,000 students and, in addition to arts and sciences and engineering, he added schools of public affairs, medicine, dentistry, nursing, allied health professions, basic health sciences and social work. Toll recruited elite researchers and scholars, including Nobel Prize recipient CN Yang, to develop competitive academic departments. For his contributions to the University, Toll was listed among “100 Who Shaped the Century” by Newsday.

★ 1961:John Lee, President John Francis Lee, the former chairman of the Mechanical Engineering Department at North Carolina State, was appointed as the University's first president on January 1, 1961. His mandate from SUNY was to convert the Long Island Center from a science and engineering college to a full-scale university, complete with liberal arts and sciences programs and a graduate school. On June 25, 1961, the University's first commencement ceremony awarded 25 Bachelor of Science degrees at the Coe Estate In Oyster Bay. Lee served as the University's president until November 9, 1961. [Stony Brook: State University of New York, The College History Series]

★ 1957–1961:Dean Leonard K. OlsonLeonard K. Olson was named dean of the State University College on Long Island on February 14, 1957. His administrative duties included managing the Oyster Bay campus and overseeing the planning of the Stony Brook campus. Olson traveled throughout the United States recruiting top faculty as he intended "this college to set a high standard of academic excellence." The fourteen professors President Olson appointed had formerly held positions at the University of Oxford, Columbia University, Yale University and the University of Chicago. [Stony Brook: State University of New York, The College History Series]